Cambiar and the English for the same, change, both come from the same root: cambiare, Latin, also meaning change.

Although this may not be obvious at first, we can see the mapping in the c-m-b of cambiar and the ch-n-g of change. The -m- and -n- are often interchanged; and the -g- and -b- both have that soft sound where you can hear how one can easily turn into the other, although it is a bit less common.

Why did the c- of the Latin turn into the ch- in change? Oh, easy: because it came to English via the French! And French has it own sets of patterns of course!

Nerds love to pattern-match, to find commonalities among everything. Our approach to learning languages revolves (the same -volve- that is in "volver", to "return") around connecting the Spanish words to the related English words via their common etymologies - to find the linguistic patterns, because these patterns become easy triggers to remember what words mean. Want to know more? Email us and ask: [email protected]